PhD position at FME SecurEL – Organizational and regulatory aspects influencing security and resilience in a decentralized electricity sector
There is a temporary PhD position for 3 years available at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management – Section Health, Safety and Environmental Management. The position is resident at NTNUs campus in Trondheim. This is an educational position, which will provide promising research recruits the opportunity for professional development through studies towards a PhD-degree. The position is connected to the PhD program at the Faculty of Economics and Management and the faculty will be your employer.
The PhD position will be part of FME SecurEL. The Centre will facilitate a secure, resilient, and sustainable electricity distribution grid that ensures both the security of electricity supply and a path to a net-zero-emissions society. See https://securel.no/
About the centre
The PhD position will be part of FME SecurEL. The Centre will facilitate a secure, resilient, and sustainable electricity distribution grid that ensures both the security of electricity supply and a path to a net-zero-emissions society. See https://securel.no/
SecurEL is a Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research, facilitating a secure, resilient, and sustainable electricity distribution grid that ensures both the security of electricity supply and a path to a net-zero-emissions society. SecurEL aims to develop new knowledge addressing research challenges arising from accelerated electrification and increased use of the existing grid. Reaching these goals requires strong interdisciplinary collaboration among research institutions, user partners, and experts with diverse areas of expertise.
The Centre brings together experts from fields such as electrical engineering, energy systems, information and communication technology, cybersecurity, engineering cybernetics, industrial economics, as well as humanities and social sciences, to develop effective solutions for the power grid. SecurEL is a consortium of 42 partners, including 7 research partners. The centre period is 2025-2032, and the total budget is 398 million Norwegian kroner (NOK). NTNU is represented as a partner mainly by the Department of Electric Energy (IEL) and the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT).
Recruitment and research education is an important part of the mission of SecurEL. The PhD candidates funded by the Centre will contribute with cutting-edge knowledge and research. Overall, the Centre will directly finance 17 PhD and postdoc positions, and also have several associated PhDs from closely related projects. As a SecurEL-funded PhD candidate, you will be employed by NTNU, a university partner in the Centre, and take active part in the research activities. Through the Centre, you will have access to a forum with other PhD candidates affiliated with the Centre, and opportunities for research stays with partners, both nationally and abroad, through its international network.
Read more about the Centre and its research at the website https://www.securel.no/.
About the position
There is an ongoing transition from fossil fuels to electricity as the main source of energy in industry, transport, households and other sectors. The increasing electrification of society depends on secure, resilient and sustainable power grids and a reliable and available power supply. There are some emerging risks related to the electrification, involving more technological and organizational complexity, more frequent and advanced cyber-attacks and extreme weather events related to climate change.
This PhD position will support a work package addressing societal and organizational aspects and regulatory policies that could influence and mitigate such risks and provide knowledge on how to make power grids resilient and able to handle surprises and unforeseen events.
Relevant topics for the PhD are based within the social sciences and include (but are not limited to):
• Organizational and interorganizational aspects related to security of electricity supply, including coordination, handling of risks, emergencies and ‘creeping crises’ regarding climate impacts or other relevant pressures
• Regulatory aspects and exploration of policy gaps in the management of risks related to electrification
• Alternative solutions to grid expansion and policy frameworks relating to these – including energy decentralization, local flexibility resources, or similar, which can increase system-level resilience or reduce vulnerabilities related to electricity dependency
• Local flexibility/sharing arrangements in Norway and their (possible) impacts on security of supply
The PhD. project could be based on qualitative and/or quantitative social scientific methods. This includes interviews, document analyses, survey questionnaires etc. The main supervisor will be from the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, and a supervisor team will be composed by research partners according to the topic of the concrete project.
Duties of the position
• Execute a PhD project within 3 years (including obtaining own data for research, analysis and dissemination).
• Plan and execute the empirical work and data collection targeted to address the research objectives.
• Complete the necessary doctoral coursework as per NTNU’s guidelines.
• Attend project meetings and develop a collaboration network with project partners.
• Disseminate research findings through national/international academic conferences and open access scientific journals that meet the requirements for the PhD position.
Qualification requirements
• The PhD-position's main objective is to fulfil requirements to qualify for work in research positions. The qualification requirement is completion of a master’s degree or second degree (equivalent to 120 credits) from one of the department’s programs or from the social sciences. Applicants should have a strong academic background with a grade of B or better in terms of NTNU’s grading scale. Applicants with no letter grades from previous studies must have an equally good academic foundation.
• The position requires excellent English oral and writing skills.
In addition, the following qualifications will contribute positively to the evaluation of the applicant:
• Scandinavian language skills
• Background and/or experience relevant to the project topic (see the project topic)
• Documented experience from the electricity sector
Please read more here: https://www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-stillinger/stilling/275919
Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management
IØT has challenging and inspiring educational programmes and research projects in the cross-disciplinary field of technology management. Through its programmes of study, IØT educates candidates with a solid technological basis in methodology and theory on how to develop and manage technologically based organisations.
Participation in, and development of, research projects in close co-operation with Norwegian industry, the department is also developing models, tools and methods for how to manage Norwegian industry.
